It's been a year since we left New York for Florida. Here's what we learned

 On New Year’s Day, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was sworn in for her first full term. In the speech that followed she said "We must and will make our state safe … we have to make our state more affordable … And we must reverse the trend of people leaving our state in search of lower costs and opportunities elsewhere." 

The governor of New York is choosing not to understand why people are fleeing her state. 

I know because I was one of them. 

A year ago, my husband and three children got on an airplane, moved to Florida and never looked back. Our move had made the news. I’m a columnist at New York’s storied newspaper, the New York Post, but more than that I had long been New York’s greatest champion. 

My family had arrived in Brooklyn in 1978 from the Soviet Union. Raised in Flatbush and then Bensonhurst, I returned to Brooklyn after college to live in Greenpoint. I made the big move to "the city" when my career started taking off and lived on the Upper East Side. 

I moved to the Upper West when I married my husband, also a lifelong New Yorker with a similar story about an immigrant family (from Israel) growing up in the boroughs (Queens.) 

We eventually moved back to my Brooklyn, to Park Slope, and planned to raise little New Yorkers in the dream home we built for ourselves. Ours was the classic story of the American dream and making it in America’s gateway, New York City. 

Then COVID hit. We saw a lot of people flee in the early days but we never considered leaving. This was our home and fear of a virus would not push us out. We had survived 9/11, the blackout of 2003, Hurricane Sandy. New York would bounce back, we believed, of course it would. 

It wasn’t the virus that killed our New York dream. It was the political reaction to that virus. The George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020 shook us but not nearly as much as the response from public health officials saying the protests were OK or the politicians covering for the destruction of cities across the country with woke platitudes. 

Every conversation seemed to take a similar path. COVID was a giant danger, we were constantly told, so you must do what we say. 

Schools in New York City couldn’t open, obviously. Well, except private schools. Only public school kids needed to be kept extra safe. And masks needed to be worn all the time. It was necessary! Yes, even outdoors! But then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo was almost never photographed in one and his successor Hochul, who kept masks on toddlers until the middle of 2022, was rarely seen in one either. 

My husband and I sat on a Long Island beach that summer of 2020 and said words we could never have imagined: we’ve got to go. We have to get our children out of this. 

But we didn’t go. Because leaving the place you had loved for so long, where your family lives and where your dream of your life was supposed to take place is harder than it sounds. When schools went from their ridiculous part-time model to fully closed in November of 2020, that’s when we got semi-serious about getting out. 

We got a vacation rental in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, an area we hadn’t heard of before, and enrolled our three children in the local public school. 

For nearly five months, we lived a life New Yorkers like us could not imagine. The kids went to school every day. We went out to dinner. We never wore masks outdoors. It was normal and normal was glorious. 

During that stay, I interviewed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the first time. He said words my New York leaders would not say. 

He talked about putting children first, how important it was for him personally that schools opened for Florida kids, and how he was ready to fight for these kids. Meanwhile, in New York, the politicians were also fighting…to give Teachers Unions whatever they wanted at the expense of kids. 

We went back in May of 2021 and we still were not ready to abandon New York. We had one foot out the door but one foot still in our dream Brooklyn home. Maybe we could make it work? 

Schools did open for full-time learning in fall of 2021. But masks were required, even outside, even though Dr. Anthony Fauci himself had said that was unnecessary. 

My kids ate lunch on the ground outdoors, urged to mask between bites, while the elderly Gov. Hochul traipsed the state, maskless, eating as a normal person living a normal life. 

Meanwhile, crime was continuing to spike. But conversations around the crime wave were much like the conversations around COVID. There was correct language and correct ideas. 

The multi-million dollar townhouses on my block still had their "Defund Police" signs in the windows. Police were bad and crime, well, did it even really exist? 

Talking about crime was racist, talking about ideas on how to fight crime was racist, it was better to not speak at all. So many people did just that. Why have a fight in a Facebook group to say you were worried about crime when people would just shut you down with numbers saying that crime wasn’t even that bad yet or that concern about crime showed your privilege. It was easier to just be quiet and move away. Many people did just that. 

There wasn’t one moment that broke us, and severed our ties to our home city, but a million little moments. My middle son struggled with masking and would often get in trouble for having it under his nose. Again, outside, in nearly 2022. 

Our youngest was falling behind academically. The mask was stunting his verbal skills. He was hard to understand and was having trouble understanding his teacher. 

In November of 2021, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was photographed maskless indoors. In her defense she tweeted "I wear a mask most of the time indoors. We took them off as people were having a hard time hearing us." 

Well, yes, that’s the problem with masking. My son had a hard time being heard in school for years. For years. And she did not care whatsoever. But, again, hypocrites will be hypocrites. It was the silence from my fellow New Yorkers about stuff like this that was impossible for us to take. 

There wasn’t one moment that broke us and forced us to finally make the move. We made the decision in late November of 2021 and by early January we were on a plane to Florida. We landed in our short-term rental and the kids started school, maskless, for the second half of the school year. 

We were done. We are free. A few months later Gov. Hochul would urge Republican New Yorkers to "jump on a bus and head down to Florida." She included the dig that they’re not New Yorkers. 

Her spiteful, hateful, leadership caused people to do just that. Now, as the news hit in the New York Post last week that over 2000 millionaires left New York during the pandemic, she has to beg for people to stay. These millionaires didn’t leave "in search of lower costs and opportunities elsewhere," they left because of her leadership. 

They didn’t suddenly realize Florida had no state income tax. They saw the writing on the wall for New York just as we did. I appreciate the poetics of Hochul’s latest comments and I appreciate even more that I get to do that from afar. 

A question I get asked a lot is if I have any regrets about the move "now that COVID is over." New York continues to have COVID restrictions aimed specifically at children. 

My sons’ Brooklyn public school continues to do all of their school events outdoors. A recent one was held while it was 45 degrees. 

Parents who haven’t been vaccinated for COVID-19 are not allowed inside the school buildings. 

It’s 2023, we know the vaccine doesn’t control spread, and yet some parents haven’t been inside their kid’s classroom since 2020. It’s madness and it continues. 

There’s also the additional fear that masking could be reimplemented at any time. 

When Philadelphia and Boston discuss masking in schools, New York City parents tell me they worry their schools will be next. It’s a worry Miami parents simply don’t have because of Gov. DeSantis. Leadership matters. 

Because our move was so public, I’ve heard from people all across the country. I’ve heard their struggles in leaving their families, their hometowns, their dreams of a certain life for themselves and their families. 

It wasn’t just New Yorkers fleeing. People across the country left for similar reasons. They didn’t just end up in Florida either. Texas, North Carolina and many other states picked up the refugees yearning for a better life. 

Not everyone I hear from is fully happy with their move. Some aren’t sure they landed in the right place. But I have yet to hear from anyone who is going back. 

The great majority of people who contact me are like us: full of gratitude and happiness that we got to sanity, to safety, to normalcy. We’ll always love New York and wish for it to return to its former glory. But we’ll do that wishing from the Sunshine State that has become our family’s home. 

Every year, our family celebrates the day we came to America. July 20th is our Americaversary. 

On January 3rd our family will celebrate one year as Floridians. The concept is similar. Pursue freedom and celebrate where you find it.

Karol Markowicz is a columnist at the New York Post. She has also written for Time, USA Today, The Observer, Heat Street, Federalist, Daily Beast and elsewhere.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/been-year-since-left-new-york-florida-what-learned?intcmp=tw_fnc

Putin Sends Warship Armed With Hypersonic Missiles To Atlantic & Indian Oceans

 Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a warship armed with new hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles to be deployed on a mission to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, in what could be a message and warning aimed at the West against escalating in Ukraine.

The deployment of the frigate appears intended to make maximum possible public impact, given the announcement was made by Putin himself in a televised conference call with his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu. 

Along with Shoigu, Putin addressed Igor Krokhmal, commander of the frigate which bears the name "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov" - and reminded him the ship while on mission is armed with Zircon hypersonic weapons - again in a coordinated message which unveiled the deployment to the public for the first time. 

"This time the ship is equipped with the latest hypersonic missile system – 'Zircon' – which has no analogs," Putin said. "I would like to wish the crew of the ship success in their service for the good of the Motherland."

The ship is expected to also enter the Mediterranean Sea at some point while on its Atlantic mission, though the timeline of the voyage remains unclear.

"This ship, armed with 'Zircons', is capable of delivering pinpoint and powerful strikes against the enemy at sea and on land," Shoigu had responded to the Putin announcement. The defense chief also stressed the Zircon is undefeatable, able to evade any anti-air defense system in the world due to its purported ability to fly at nine times the speed of sound.

According to The Telegraph, it's already making its way into the Atlantic, based on the publication's Wednesday reporting that "a warship armed with new hypersonic cruise missiles on a training mission [went] past Britain to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean."

All of this follows last year's test launches of Sarmat – an intercontinental missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads – launches which were confirmed in highly publicized videos.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has repeatedly warned the West not to get more deeply involved in Ukraine, at a moment the US administration has authorized Patriot anti-air defenses to be transferred to Kiev.

However, Washington has sought to claim that no American troops will be manning the Patriot batteries, but that it will take some time - at least six or more months - for Ukrainian personnel to be trained on the Patriots' operation.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-sends-hypersonic-missile-armed-warship-atlantic-indian-oceans

Viking accuses Chinese biotech of 'ruse' to raid trade secrets and make off with NASH cache

 Viking Therapeutics thinks it has rumbled a raid on its nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) trade secrets. In a lawsuit, the San Diego-based biotech has accused China’s Ascletis BioScience of using information shared under a confidentiality agreement to turbocharge its expansion into the NASH development race. 

In the lawsuit (PDF), Viking sets out a story that begins with a request by Ascletis to meet at the 2016 BIO International Convention to discuss a potential business opportunity related to thyroid hormone receptor-beta (TR-beta) agonist VK2809. Viking said it shared information under a confidential disclosure agreement (CDA). Three years later, Viking set up a new CDA after being approached by Ascletis for the second time. In Viking’s telling of events, Ascletis made the second request in bad faith.

“Viking later discovered that the potential business collaboration that Ascletis Bioscience proposed was actually a ruse to steal Viking’s VK2809 trade secrets, circumvent years of research and development, and release its own drug product to compete with Viking’s VK2809,” the U.S. biotech wrote in its lawsuit.

According to Viking, people including Ascletis CEO Jinzi Jason Wu viewed materials shared under the 2019 CDA for more than one month before the Chinese biotech “suddenly reversed course, claiming that it did not want a business collaboration with Viking.” Around five months after the U-turn, Wu founded Gannex Pharma, the lawsuit states, and six months after that the new startup began filing patent applications. In Viking’s view, the patent filings made in early 2020 “improperly contained” certain VK2809 trade secrets.

Ascletis ran a clinical trial of NASH candidate ASC41 shortly before setting up Gannex, according to the lawsuit. And Gannex, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ascletis, then went on to run multiple studies of the drug candidate, including a pair of 180-subject phase 2 trials that are scheduled to wrap up in 2024. Viking is suspicious of the pace of progress of ASC41. 

“ASC41 was unlawfully derived from Viking trade secrets,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants could not have so quickly advanced their development, testing and commercialization efforts without breaching the CDAs and improperly and intentionally misusing Viking Trade Secrets to Viking’s detriment.”

Ascletis’ own materials describe ASC41 as a small-molecule prodrug that is selectively cleaved in the liver by CYP3A4 to form a pharmacologically active TR-beta agonist metabolite. Viking describes VK2809 as a liver-targeted small-molecule prodrug of a potent, selective TR-beta agonist. VK2809 is activated in the liver by CYP3A4.

Based on the similarities between the descriptions of the drug candidates, Viking inferred “that ASC41 is Ascletis’ version of—if not the same compound as—VK2809.” Ascletis sees things very differently, as its parent company Ascletis Pharma set out in a statement (PDF) published in response to Viking’s lawsuit. 

“From the publicly available allegations of Viking set out in the complaints, the company believes that such allegations have no merit and will vigorously defend against the complaints. ASC41 is an in-house developed oral tablet using the company’s own technologies and targeting [TR-beta] for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis,” Ascletis wrote.

Viking has requested a trial by jury and issued a list of demands as part of the lawsuit. The list includes “actual damages in an amount to be proven at trial” and “restitution, actual loss, unjust enrichment, and disgorgement of profits,” or, alternatively, “a reasonable royalty.”

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/viking-accuses-chinese-biotech-ruse-raid-trade-secrets-and-make-nash-cache

ECG-equipped Apple Watches found to violate AliveCor patents, sales ban possible

 Hot on the heels of a major win for Apple in its patent dispute with fellow wearable device maker AliveCor, the tech giant has hit a roadblock.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled last week that the FDA-cleared electrocardiogram technology built into recent models of Apple’s eponymous smartwatch violates patents previously filed by AliveCor. The latter company—which, like Apple, is headquartered in Silicon Valley—makes artificial-intelligence-powered personal ECG monitors such as the FDA-cleared KardiaMobile portable device.

The ruling stems from a complaint AliveCor filed in 2021 and doubles down on the initial determination finding issued in June by an administrative law judge at the ITC, who determined that Apple had violated two of AliveCor’s patents. After that finding, the companies filed further petitions before the issue was put to a vote by the full ITC this month.

In a company release sent to Fierce Medtech, AliveCor CEO Priya Abani characterized the ITC’s decision as “a win for innovation and consumer choice.”

“The ruling underscores the importance of upholding intellectual property rights for companies like AliveCor and scores of others whose innovations are at risk of being suppressed by a Goliath like Apple,” Abani continued. “We look forward to continuing to build and innovate on our cardiac solutions to improve people's lives.”

The determination that the ECG-equipped Apple Watches—spanning from 2018’s Series 4 model to the recently introduced Series 8—violate AliveCor patents comes with a limited exclusion order and a cease-and-desist order for Apple. If enforced, those orders would ban the tech maker from further imports of the ECG technology as it currently stands.

The commission also set a bond of $2 for each patent-infringing device imported or sold in the 60 days after the ruling, during which time the decision has been sent to President Joe Biden for review. Presidents have the power to veto a potential import ban but they rarely do, according to Reuters. Apple would be able to appeal the ban in federal appeals court after the presidential review period ends Feb. 12.

Still, the ITC has suspended the actual enforcement of any of the punitive actions as the companies await a final decision in a related case from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

"At Apple, our teams work tirelessly to create the best products and services in the world, with technology that empowers users with industry-leading health, wellness and safety features. While we firmly disagree with the ITC's decision today, we are pleased that the exclusion order has been put on pause, consistent with past precedent. The patents on which AliveCor’s case rest have been found invalid, and for that reason, we should ultimately prevail in this matter," Apple said in a statement sent to Fierce Medtech.

In contrast to the ITC, the PTAB reached a verdict in Apple’s favor earlier this month. The board ruled that all three of the claims at the center of AliveCor’s challenge were in fact “unpatentable,” concluding that anyone “of ordinary skill in the art” of cardiac monitoring could’ve developed the same portable ECG tech.

Those findings—that AliveCor’s technology is “too obvious” to be patented, and therefore its patents are invalid—could throw the company’s win with the ITC into jeopardy, since the patents are the basis for the ITC ruling.

Following the PTAB’s Dec. 6 ruling, AliveCor immediately vowed to appeal the decision; the ITC is waiting for the entire appeals process in that case to conclude before moving forward with enforcing its proposed import ban on affected Apple Watches.

Meanwhile, AliveCor is also pursuing a separate lawsuit accusing Apple of engaging in anticompetitive behavior. The company said in last week’s release that it’s expecting to see that case go to trial in early 2024.

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/ecg-equipped-apple-watches-found-violate-alivecor-patents-teeing-possible-sales-ban

Moderna CEO says mpox vaccine not high priority

 Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel says data from the company's preclinical monkeypox, or mpox, vaccine are "fantastic," but don't expect to see it on the market any time soon, if at all. 

“Given where monkeypox is, an innovative vaccine that's working pretty well on the market, we want to use our resources … to do things that are going to help people,” Bancel said in an interview with Fierce Biotech Tuesday. “I could do whatever it is, A and B vaccine using mRNA; I think it’s no use to the planet.” 

Bancel’s comments are the first update on the company's mpox work since disclosing in May plans to investigate “potential monkeypox vaccines at a preclinical level.” More than seven months later, the prospect of advancing the candidate seems to have dwindled, although Bancel says the company has not made a decision yet. 

At the time of Moderna's announcement, the mpox outbreak in the U.S. was only just beginning, with an average of two new cases reported per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That quickly accelerated, with average new infections climbing and peaking at 457 per day in early August.

The swift spread of the disease spurred criticism of the Biden administration for failing to act quickly enough to stop the spread and rapidly grow the supply of Bavarian Nordic’s smallpox vaccine, Jynneos. Since then, the U.S. outbreak has slowed significantly, with cases down to five per day as of Dec. 21, 2022. A total of 20 deaths have been recorded in the U.S.

The rapid spread of the disease through the Western world highlighted global health disparities, as mpox had been endemic in Africa for years prior. Emblematic in the lack of vaccine and therapeutic access is the continent’s 18.6% case-fatality ratio (CFR), with the vast majority of deaths coming from Congo. In the U.S., the CFR is less than 0.1%. \

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/moderna-ceo-says-mpox-vaccine-data-fantastic-development-not-high-priority

'I used my student loans to pay for weight-loss surgery'

 While some college students dip into financial aid to fund their party lifestyles, Megan Fowler opted to “save” her own life.

The 22-year-old international business major at an unnamed university is revealing how she used about $3,600 of her student loan to pay for gastric sleeve surgery in Turkey.

Fowler had long been self-conscious about her size, and weighed in about 336 pounds at her highest weight before surgery.

Since going under the knife, the UK native has decreased her size to just over 238 pounds — a number she hasn’t seen since she was 18.

“I’ve been dieting since I was 16. I tried all the fad diets which weren’t working and so I continued to put on the weight,” Fowler, who also worked as a pizza delivery gal to also help pay for her procedure, told to Caters News. “I used to avoid mirrors and I wouldn’t let people take pictures of me. People would drag me into photos, but I’d say no I’ll take them. I was always the photographer.”

Megan Fowler, 22, used her student loan funds funds to bankroll her weight-loss surgery rather than for student debt. She’s dropped from 336 pounds to 238 pounds.

@findingmyfanny / CATERS NEWS

“I’m a rugby player and I damaged my back which stopped me from playing, but I carried on eating like a rugby player and that’s when I struggled to get rid of the weight. I couldn’t exercise because of my injury, and I got heavier and less mobile.”

@findingmyfanny / CATERS NEWS
After a collegiate rugby injury damaged her back and forced her out of the league, Fowler admitted she “carried on eating” like an athlete and “that’s when I struggled to get rid of the weight” as she became less mobile and couldn’t exercise.

At one point, she was so ashamed and “embarrassed” of her size that she stopped attending class in-person and did them remotely instead.

“I also stopped going out with my friends and just locked myself away.”

Fowler had the light bulb moment when she saw a woman on TikTok who also had gastric sleeve surgery — and then she decided to do her own research.

Before traveling to Turkey for the operation, she admitted that her family was wasn’t thrilled about her unorthodox funding measures.

“My nan was really cross I spent some of my loan on the surgery — but I justify it as I don’t drink, and I hadn’t spent much money as I wasn’t going out,” she said. “A lot of students drink their loan money away, but I used it to save my life. I was actually jeopardizing my education by not going into university so it helped me.”

Fowler is saving up to get a tummy tuck and excess skin removal. However, if needed, she’ll dip into her student loan money once again.

@findingmyfanny / CATERS NEWS

Fowler’s stitches from her laparoscopic gastric sleeve surgery. “Things are getting better, and I hope to be back playing rugby in a few months. I’m excited for the next stage in my life and to get back on the rugby pitch.”

@findingmyfanny / CATERS NEWS
When her family eventually saw how Fowler was gaining her confidence back — and how much weight she was actually losing — they became more supportive, she said.

Now, while Fowler still aims to lose at least another 70 pounds, the Brit continues to stick to her healthy lifestyle by having an exercise routine, making better choices and lowering her 3,500-calories-a-day intake to 1,200 calories. She has even stopped ordering and bingeing on “fatty” take-out meals.

“I’m also saving so much money which is definitely helpful being a student,” she said. “I’ve found enjoyment in cooking again and knowing exactly what I’m eating.”

Meanwhile, Fowler recently saw a photo of herself and she was surprised at how she looked, adding that she would often edit her older photos very hard to ensure she looked right.

“I nearly broke down when I saw a photo of myself I actually liked, as that hadn’t been the case since I was 17,” she said. “I keep finding old photos and I can’t believe how big I was. I’m getting there … It’s just nice to get my confidence back.”

@findingmyfanny / CATERS NEWS

“I used to avoid mirrors and I wouldn’t let people take pictures of me,” she said. “I’m now organizing a ball for people who have had bariatric surgery called the Biggest Losers Ball, for those who deserve that princess moment to celebrate how far they’ve come.”

@findingmyfanny / CATERS NEWS
“I nearly broke down when I saw a photo of myself I actually liked, as that hadn’t been the case since I was 17,” she said. “I keep finding old photos and I can’t believe how big I was. I’m getting there, but I do have a long way to go. It’s just nice to get my confidence back.”

Fowler is saving up to travel back to Turkey for a tummy tuck and excess skin removal. However, if needed, she’ll dip into her student loan money once again.

“[This surgery] will mark the end of my weight-loss journey and allow me to have the confidence to go on holiday and not have to live in t-shirts and hoodies,” Fowler proclaimed.

“Things are getting better, and I hope to be back playing rugby in a few months. I’m excited for the next stage in my life and to get back on the rugby pitch.”

https://nypost.com/2023/01/04/i-used-my-student-loans-to-pay-for-weight-loss-surgery/

Hookipa Gets $5 M Milestone from Gilead in Development of Hep B Vaccine

 HOOKIPA Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOK, ‘HOOKIPA’), a company developing a new class of immunotherapies based on its proprietary arenavirus platform, today announced that it has achieved a $5 million non-dilutive milestone payment under its collaboration agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. HOOKIPA completed and delivered a regulatory support package for Gilead’s Phase 1 clinical trial of an investigational therapeutic vaccine for chronic hepatitis B using HOOKIPA’s arenaviral platform. The first participant in the Phase 1 clinical trial is expected to be dosed in 2023.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hookipa-pharma-achieves-5-million-120000230.html